Credit Unions Match Loan, CD Rates

published 1 March 2013

People who shop at big-box retailers are used to price-matching programs. Target, for example, will match prices of some items at Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Toysrus.com and Walmart.com. Less well known is the banking world’s equivalent: interest-rate matching, meant to entice you to transfer a savings account or a loan.

In a survey of community credit unions, GoBankingRates.com found that some institutions will match competitors’ interest rates on auto loans, certificates of deposit and other products. Bring proof, such as documentation showing a loan rate that has been offered to you. "Each credit union’s rate-matching promotion is different, so be sure you understand the full terms of a quoted rate before you bank on it," says Casey Bond, managing editor of the Web site GoBankingRates. Even if a credit union or bank doesn’t have a formal program, ask whether it will match a competitor’s rate.

Last year, Jennifer Wegleitner financed a Ford F-150 pickup through a lender associated with the dealer, which offered her a 2.9% rate. But when she learned about a rate-matching program at her credit union, Sodes Federal Credit Union in Aberdeen, S.D., she transferred the loan at the same rate, which was more than a percentage point lower than the going rate at Sodes. "Good service is the factor that made me decide to switch," says Wegleitner. “It was so easy.”

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Lisa has been the editor of Kiplinger Personal Finance since June 2023. Previously, she spent more than a decade reporting and writing for the magazine on a variety of topics, including credit, banking and retirement. She has shared her expertise as a guest on the Today Show, CNN, Fox, NPR, Cheddar and many other media outlets around the nation. Lisa graduated from Ball State University and received the school’s “Graduate of the Last Decade” award in 2014. A military spouse, she has moved around the U.S. and currently lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and two sons.